F.3 D BIOS Update ? Manual Install vs. HP Care = Difference!

I does not seem logical, but a word of advice in regard to the latest F.3 D BIOS update. I originally did the update by downloading it from the HP site and manually installing the update. After the BIOS was flashed, it rebooted and showed F.3 D as the BIOS version. Multiple times over the last week, I have had occasion to see places where my computer displayed that it was using F.3 D as the BIOS (important information when you read the rest of this post). I did not see any real difference in temperatures for the CPU though.

By chance tonight, for another reason I needed to run the HP Total Care program found on our laptops (I had previously disabled auto start for this). In the background it automatically looked for updates and started downloading/installing them. I really did not want it to do this because it looked like it was downloading three updates that I had already installed manually. Since the BIOS was updating, I decided I better just let it run versus stopping it in the middle. I am glad that I did.

Oddly, during the BIOS flash process a window popped up that said it found I was running F.3 B and asked if I agreed to update to F.3 D. That was odd because, as I said before, when I went in and manually checked the BIOS over the last week it had displayed F.3 D.

Anyway, after the reboot the fan started on high and then quickly throttle down to low. The fan so far has constantly been running on low. Temperatures while the PC is basically idling have dropped from around 50 at idle to the mid 30’s. Under moderate load they now go up to the mid 40’s. Very heavy load gives me upper 40’s to 51. Before, moderate to heavy loads produced a constant cycle going up to 60+ and then the fan kicked in on high until it was back to 50ish (at which point the fan usually cycled off).

I am not sure why the first flash of the BIOS to F.3 D did not cause this same behavior but if you are still experiencing high temps and you manually updated your PC, try doing the update via the HP Care program on your computer. I would try multiple flashes to the BIOS if you still continue to get temps at idle in the 50’s.

The constant low fan is not something that thrills me but I probably won’t notice it after I get used to it. Heat is the number one enemy of a PC and I have always thought my laptop was running too hot, so I will take this tradeoff. If you read the multiple threads on the various forums in regard to failing HP motherboards and WiFi cards that are supposedly due to heat, this change in fan behavior has to be a good preventative measure. I just hope it doesn’t drastically lower the already rather limited amount of time the PC will run off the battery. I say this because when I have unplugged my PC, the fan behavior has not changed and it still constantly runs on low speed (but admittedly I have only been testing for about an hour).

I hope this information can help someone else!

 

Nice reporting - Thanks!

 

cant remember if i did it manually or not but it seems to run a lot cooler